THE TURNIP MOTH. 477 



which are cultivated with solid masses of vegetation, such as 

 the summer-cabbage and the broccoli, this larva is terribly 

 destructive, burrowing through and through the very heart of 

 the vegetable, and leaving behind it a track or gallery, filled 

 with the watery juices of the plant and the ejecta of the 

 caterpillars. For my part, I have seen so much of these 

 abominable beings that I have not for many years ventured to 

 touch a ' summer-cabbage.' I am not particularly fastidious, 

 but have not yet brought myself to appreciate boiled cater- 

 pillars, and rather fancy that I never shall accept them as an 

 article of food. 



It is quite impossible for the cook to extirpate them from 

 the cabbage, no matter how conscientiously she may steep it in 

 strong salt and water. Those caterpillars which are merely 

 lurking between the leaves are dislodged easily enough, and 

 often come tumbling out in such numbers that the cook is 

 persuaded that she has completely ejected them. But, deep 

 within the heart of the cabbage, sorely grieved indeed by the 

 salt, but too deeply buried to make their escape, are sundry of 

 the largest and best-fed caterpillars, which are eventually 

 boiled with the cabbage, and mostly eaten ignorantly by those 

 who partake of the vegetable. During life they are darker 

 than the bright green of the leaf, but the boiling water reduces 

 leaf and caterpillar to a very similar hue, and it is not easy to 

 distinguish the one from the other. 



The colour of the upper wings of this Moth is dark greyish- 

 brown, mottled variously with darker brown and grey. The 

 lower wings are paler brown, with a smoky or blackish tint. 

 The caterpillar is exceedingly variable in its colours, but is 

 generally olive- brown above and yellow below, and on the back 

 of each segment is a blackish triangular mark in which are two 

 white dots. Sometimes the body is pale dusky-green above 

 and below. When full-fed it descends to the earth, makes a 

 shallow burrow in it, and changes to a smooth brown chrysalis. 

 Both the Moth and caterpillar are plentiful through the 

 summer, and during the autumn the ground may be nearly 

 cleared of pupge by judicious digging and hand-picking. 



The family of the Noctuidae will be represented by three 

 examples, the first of which is the Tcjrnip Moth {Agrotis 

 segetum), which is drawn on Woodcut LIV. Fig. 2. 



